Ex-Egyptian president Morsi sentenced to life in jail for spying

CAIRO: An Egyptian court sentenced ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to life in prison on Tuesday on charges of spying for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and Iran.

The court also confirmed death sentences against 16 other defendants on charges of delivering secret documents abroad between 2005 and 2013.

The court still has to decide whether to confirm or commute death sentences it handed down against Morsi and more than 100 others in a separate trial on charges related to their escape from prison during the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

In Egypt, a life sentence is 25 years in jail. Tuesday’s verdict can be appealed.

The army ousted Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, in July 2013 after mass protests calling for an end to his divisive one-year rule.

He has already been sentenced to 20 years in jail in a separate trial on charges of inciting violence.